A Benevolent & Generous Publication
VAISHNAVISM
Real & Apparent
By
Paramahamsa Swami 108 Sri
SHRIMAD BHAKTI SIDDHANTA SARASWATI GOSWAMI
EDITED BY
Paribrajakacharya Tridandi Swami Sri Srimad
BHAKTI VAIBHAVA PURI GOSWAMI MAHARAJ
the beloved disciple of His Divine Grace
Om Vishnupada 108 Shri
SHRIMAD BHAKTI SIDDHANTA SARASWATI GOSWAMI
Published by:
Bhakti Bigyan Nityananda Book Trust
SRI KRISHNA CHAITANYA MISSION (Regd.)
Sri Bhakti Vinod Ashram,
Ananda Nagar, H.K. Road, Berhampur(G.M)
Orissa, (INDIA), Ph-208400
First Edition-1986
WWW Edition-2002(Makara Sankranti)
To be had at:-
- SRI CHAITANYA CHANDRA ASHRAM,
ITOTA, PURI-752001
Near Gundicha Mandir, Phone-24455
- SRI KRISHNA CHAITANYA MISSION
SRI RADHA VRINDABAN CHANDRA MANDIR
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- SRI KRISHNA CHAITANYA MISSION
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Pin-741313, Phone-45313
- SRI BHAKTI VINODE ASHRAM
Ananda Nagar, H.K. Road, Berhampur (G.M.)
Pin-760006, Phone-208400
- SRI KRISHNA CHAITANYA ASHRAM
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CONTENTS
Foreword - First
Edition
Introduction
Invocation
Real Vaisnavism
Real and Apparent Jiva
The Bondage of Jiva
Daya or Kindness to Jiva
Brahmacarya of the Mind and of the Soul
The Characteristic Defects of the Mind
Two Minds - Material and Spiritual
The Supplications of the Spiritual Mind
The Advent of Shree Chaitanya Deva
Chaitanya Deva as a Gardener
Application of Real Kindness to Jivas
PUBLISHER'S FOREWORD IN
THE FIRST EDITION
(The 3rd August, 1926)
"This
brochure contains the essence of true Vaishnavism as revealed
in the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Geeta, the Bhagavata etc, and
their teachings put into practice by Shree Chaitanya Deva. Four
things may stand in the way of realising the truth laid herein
-the cloaks of (high or low) birth and station, (proficiency or
deficiency in) worldly knowledge, and (beautiful or ugly, male
or female) form. The Over-soul within Whom all individual souls
are contained and to Whom all souls knowingly or unknowingly submit,
confutes our tricks and talents. The words for every soul who
speaks from that life must sound vain to those who do not dwell
in the same thought on their own part. When the walls of time
and space are taken away we lie on one side to the boundless deeps
of spiritual nature and to the attributes of the Supreme Lord,
find that there is another youth and another age than that which
is measured from the year of our worldly birth and realise that
the scale of the soul is one and the scale of the senses and understanding
- the agents of the material mind - is another.
The soul
in man is not the mind directing the organs of sense and action
but the animation of the mind and these organs and the background
of our existence. The angle of vision between these individual
souls and the Over-soul is one and the same everywhere, whereas
there is a distinctive variety and multiplicity of the angles
of vision between the material minds and the world of the senses.
These lines
will probably create a desire to know in all details the essential
nature of the Eternal or Absolute Truth and prompt an honest and
sincere enquiry in all who will go through them. His Divine Holiness
Paramahamsa Paribrajakacharya Shree Shreemat Bhaktisiddhanta Saraswati
Goswami Maharaj, the President-Acharya and Organiser-in-chief
of the Viswa-Vaishnava-Raja Sabha is ever ready to send His associated
counterparts -ideal devotees to explain at full length the said
scriptures in Bengali, Hindi and English in any part of the World.
He has no other work than pouring perpetual benedictions on the
suffering humanity and stopping the perennial springs of triple
miseries all flesh is heir to."
INTRODUCTION
The word
'Vaishnavism' indicates the normal, eternal, natural condition
and devotional characteristics of all individual souls in relation
to Vishnu, the All-pervading Soul. The word 'Vaishnava', which
literally and naturally means one who worships Vishnu out of pure
love expecting nothing from Him in return. The jiva is the part
who is identical with the whole when taken qualitatively and different
when taken quantitatively. This is the true and eternal relation
between jiva and Vishnu. The service of the Master is the fundamental
function of the servant, so every jiva is a Vaishnava.
My sinecere
thanks are due to Spd. Sundarananda Brahmachary and Tridandi Bhikshu
Spd. Trivikram Maharaj and Sri Kalicharan Panda for publishing
the Book within a short time. May Lord Krishna bless them.
Sri Nrusimha Chaturdasi (23.5.1986.)
Invoking the blessings
of Srila Saraswati Goswami, the Divine Master,
Tridandi Bhikhyu Bhakti Vaibhava Puri
The Triumph of
SHREE SHREE GURU AND GAURANGA
VAISHNAVISM
REAL AND APPARENT
INVOCATION
Let us
bow down at full length to the Acharya or Gurudeva (the preceptor)
Who is no other than the associated counterpart of the Supreme
Lord Himself and Who, being kindness incarnate, is ever busy in
kindly operating on the cataractous eye of ignorance of all Jivas
(souls, jivatmas) with the spike of true knowledge, thus openeth
their eternal spiritual eyes and anointeth them with the collyrium
of pure, disinterested and unsmitten love of Krishna (The Most
Pleasing Attractor), stopping further attacks and enabling them
to see Him face to face in His blissful Abode.
Let us
kiss over and over again the dust of the holy feet of the devotees
of Krishna who like purpose-trees (Kalpataru) yield the fruition
of all our devotional desires, and who are oceans of kindness
and purifiers of the fallen.
Let us
prostrate before Him Who is the most munificent, the free-giver
of the love of Krishna -Who is Krishna Himself, Whose name is
Krishna-Chaitanya, the glow of Whose body dims the lustre of liquid
gold and the graceful glance of Whose lotus-eyes makes the devotees
look upon annihilations (conscious and unconscious) as hellish
existences, heaven as a castle in the air, the unsatiable and
unconquerable organs of sense and action as venomous serpents
devoid of poison-fangs and the universe as a blissful abode.
REAL VAISNAVISM
The word
'Vaishnavism' indicates the normal, eternal and natural condition,
functions and devotional characteristics of all individual souls
in relation to Vishnu, the Supreme, the All-pervading Soul. But
such an unnatural, unpleasant and regrettable sense has been attributed
to the word as to naturally make one understand by the word, Vaishnava
(literally a pure and selfless worshipper of Vishnu), a human
form with twelve peculiar signs (Tilak) and dress on, worshipping
many gods under the garb of a particular God and hating another
human form who marks himself with different signs, puts on a different
dress and worships a different God in a different way as is the
case with the words 'Shaiva', 'Shakta', 'Ganapatya', 'Jaina',
'Buddhist', 'Mohammedan', 'Christian' etc.
This is
the most unnatural, unpleasant and regrettable sense of the word,
'Vaishnava', which literally and naturally means one who worships
Vishnu out of pure love expecting nothing from Him in return.
Vishnu,
the Supreme, All-pervading Soul, gives life and meaning to all
that is. He is the highest unchallengeable Truth devoid of illusion
everywhere and through eternity. He is Sat - ever-existing, Chit
-all-knowing, Ananda -ever-blissful and fully free. He is in jivas
and jivas are in Him, as are the rays in the glowing sun and the
particles of water in the vast rolling ocean. As nothing but heat
and light of the sun, and coldness, liquidity etc. of the sea
is found in the constituents of the rays and the particles of
water respectively, so nothing but Sat, Chit or free-will and
Ananda is found in the jiva. The ingredients and attributes of
the whole must remain in the part in a smaller degree. So the
part is identical with the whole when taken qualitatively and
different, when taken quantitatively. This is the true and eternal
relation between jiva and Vishnu. So He always prevails over jiva
who is also ever subject to Him. As the service of the master
is the fundamental function of the servant, so the service of
Vishnu is natural and inherent in jiva and it is called Vaishnavata
or Vaishnavism and every jiva is a Vaishnava. As a person possessing
immense riches is called a miser if he does not display and make
proper use of them, so jivas when they do not display Vaishnavata,
are called Non-Vaisnavas or A-Vaisnavas though in reality they
are so.
Real and apparent jiva
Shree Chaitanya
Deva once being asked who He was, replied, "I am neither
a Brahmin, nor a King, nor a Vaishya, nor a Shudra, nor a Sannyasin,
nor a Vanacharin, nor a Grihastha, nor a Brahmacharin, but I am
the servant of all the servants of Vishnu.' At another time, Shree
Sanatana Prabhu asked Him, "Who am I and why tritap*
-the three kinds of afflictions trouble me?" Shree Chaitanya
Deva answered, "Sanatana, you are a jiva, your real self
is the eternal servant of Vishnu; but you have an apparent self
-your mind and body with which the real 'I' in stupor identifies
himself. Tritap afflicts this apparent 'I'. The real 'I' or jiva
has put on these two mortal garments, the subtle and ever-changing
mind (consisting of ever-increasing unsatisfied desires) and the
physical body (consisting of five elements -earth, water, fire,
air and ether). The real 'I' forgets his own true self and is,
in consequence, wrapped up in these two wears, inner and outer,
and designates himself a Hindu, a Mohammedan, a Christian, a Brahmin,
a male, a female, rich, poor and so on. These designations of
creed, caste, rank etc., not only change in different births but
in one and the same birth; -a Hindu becomes a Mohammedan or a
Christian; a Mohammedan becomes a Hindu, a Brahmin becomes a 'Brahmo'
or a Christian! A street-boy becomes a Nawab, a Nawab becomes
a beggar. As changeability is the prime factor of the mind, it
flies like a roaming bee on the wings of desires and changes at
will its name, colour, creed, habitation etc. One frequently goes
from 'Log Cabin to White House', from the seal to the crown. The
sweet sixteen changes into bitter sixty -'The old order changeth
yielding place to new.' Jiva in this manufactory of change, in
this whirlpool of birth and death, is called enslaved (Baddha
or apparent), ever engaged in forging the fetters of bondage.
The bondage of jiva
Jivas are
of two kinds -(1) Nitya-Mukta (eternally free), (2) Nitya-Baddha
(eternally enslaved). Free jivas are never enslaved. They are
serving the Supreme God in five different functions**
in His eternal blissful abode, where there is no change, no destruction,
no misery. Jiva, once entered there never comes back here. The
inconceivably narrowest line of demarcation between land and water
or the line where land and water meet is called Tata; so also
the meeting line of the Chit world or the eternal abode of the
Supreme Lord and the A-Chit world or the region of Maya is called
Tata. The power of the Supreme Lord displayed at the Tata is known
as the Tatastha (lying at the Tata) or marginal power. All the
jivas being the display of this power, have the inherent oscillating
tendency and capability of going to the Chit or the A-Chit world.
Tata not being a resting place, jivas must go this side or that
; those preferring the A-Chit, fell into the clutches of the Octopus
Maya, when these mortal costumes of mind and body were put on
him as a punishment. The satanic frenzy in which the jiva dislikes
the blissful and eternal service of his Master and prefers to
quench his thirstful desires of enjoying matter, opens before
him a perpetual spring of liquid fire and poison at which he begins
to drink deep. Thus in going to lord it over Maya, jiva became
enslaved by her.
Daya or kindness to jiva
One apparent
jiva considers himself (mentally and physically) less distressed
than another jiva, feels for his distress and does something in
the shape of relief or redress. This is but stopping or diminishing
the unending miseries partly, locally or temporarily. It is frequently
seen that a jiva who feels aggrieved and consequently abstains
from committing wrong owing to weakness or inability, recovers,
at such relief, strength or ability enough to commit wrong to
other jivas. So it often happens that such apparently kind services
not only bring harm to the recipient but cause indirect injuries
to others. This is one aspect of the thing. Let us turn to the
other. As a gardener prunes a growing tree, allowing its root
to grow freely and easily, as a physician treats a patient leaving
the prime-disease undisturbed, so this sort of temporary kindness
stops, no doubt, the growth of the present inconveniences for
a while but in no way uproots the cause whence all these afflictions
arise. This cause has been identified with the enslaved condition
of jivas. So real and permanent kindness consists in bringing
before the enslaved jivas a true and vivid picture of their natural,
free and blissful existence and reinstating them in their true
position. Thus real kindness is applicable to the real jiva and
apparent kindness to the apparent jiva.
Brahmacharya of the mind and
of the soul
Should
we picture the very sad and deplorable mental and physical condition
of the younger generation -the boys of schools and colleges? Ye
guardians, parents and well-wishers of boys, how long will you
wink at the stealthy undermining of the vitality of your dear
ones and be cruel to them? While claiming a right over their mind
and body for one's own enjoyment, is it not fair that one should
look after their proper and natural development? There is in every
soul a strong ardour of religious zeal, which, though pent up,
will gush and struggle out like rain from the throat of the over-flowing
spout. How will the plants grow if the preserving fences devour
them? Can anybody deny that the generation is going day by day
to be mental and thus physical slaves to their senses?
Mere artificial
restraint and austerity on the body and the mind, a mechanical
regulation of diet and living in a solitary place do not constitute
Brahmacharya, for they change their sky not their mind, who scour
across the sea. Then the animals in the 'zoo' would have been
the best Brahmacharins. Brahmacharya is the powerhouse whence
currents of Atma-jnan (knowledge of one's own self) are generated
which illuminates his blinded self, withholds all his evil propensities
and set the whole machinery in motion, so that this frail and
rare but accidentally-got raft may get across the sea and anchor
in the bay for eternity after carrying its passenger to his own
home. As a barren cow looks exactly like a milch cow, but fails
in giving milk to the keeper in return for his most attentive
and faithful services which beget only further labour, so the
so-called Brahmacharya, or a knowledge of the scriptures will,
in no way, inspire Atma-jnana or real Brahmacharya in jivas. By
means and ways a non-brahmacharin can never be a Brahmacharin.
In essence,
the mind and the soul (the jiva) are diametrically opposite -the
former being restless, impetuous, changeable and ever busy in
enjoying matter, while the latter is eternal, unchangeable, stable
and incapable of enjoying matter. So real Brahmacharya rests in
the soul, not in the mind.
The characteristic defects
of the mind
The mind
and the soul are hostile to each other. There is an eternal enmity
between them. In soul the four characteristic errors of the defective
mind are totally wanting viz., (1) mistaking the mirage for water,
the rope for the serpent; (2) misapprehensive intoxication, (3)
knowing things with imperfect senses; (4) deceiving itself and
others. As the horse can not hold its own reins, so the mind can
not guide itself -it is ever being guided by an unending and unsatiable
bundle of desires in the shape of enjoyment or indifference -of
doing good or evil. Each individual mind differs from the other
-no two identical minds are to be found. The proverb goes -'so
many Rishis, so many minds'. A mind can more easily hold a wolf
by the ears than steady itself in spiritual experience. Beware
of this mind which, like a bad guide, appears before you and others
in sheep's clothing with.all the ferocity of a ravening wolf and
like a professional running thief crying "thief, thief".
In the following song of our preceptor the deceptive nature of
the mind has been fully and clearly described:
Ye wicked
mind! Thou art not a Vaishnava. The apparent chanting of Hari's
name in a lonely house is for attaining worldly supremacy; it
is nothing but pure hypocrisy!
Dost thou
not know that worldly supremacy is as valueless as the dung of
a boar and that it is one of the splendours of Maya or illusion?
Why shouldst thou think, year in and year out, of wealth and enjoyment
? These are all fleeting and transitory!
When thou
claimest wealth as thine own, it creates in thee lusts for enjoyment.
Madhava -the Lord of all wealth, should only and always be served
with it. Why dost thou trespass on the lusts of women whose only
and eternal proprietor is Yadava -Krishna, the charmer of all
enjoyers.
Ravana-lust-incarnate,
fought in vain with Raghava-the Love-incarnate, for the imaginary
tree of the supremacy which is but a mirage. The supremacy thou
seekest is like quicksand ever receding from thy foot-hold. Thou
canst never stand upon it and if thou insist on doing so, it will
lead you to rack and ruin. If thou can place thyself on the steady
and solid standing- ground whereon a Vaishnava ever stands, thy
feet will never slip.
Why dost
thou suffer under the false hope of profaning Hari's men -the
devotees, and attaining their inherent spiritual eminence and
boast of thy fruitless and foolish efforts? An unworldly and eternal
pre-eminence spontaneously follows the holy heels of a Vaishnava.
The relation
between a Vaishnava (devotee) and Vishnu (the Lord) does not smell
of Maya (illusion) or worldly deceit. Knowest thou that thy seeming
supremacy is as treacherous as a woman devouring a dog's flesh
and thy feigning loneliness is totally hellish.
"I
shall give up 'Kirtan' -chanting Lord's name, and besmear myself
with supremacy - what is the good in searching for such eminence?"
-if this be thy thought, knowest thou for certain that Madhavendra
Puri did never deceive himself and commit theft in his own store-house
of perception like thee!
Thou shouldst
never compare the unsolicited eminence following Madhavendra Puri
like an attending maid, with your seeming one which is like the
dung of a boar. Thou hast drowned thyself out of envy in the filthy
waters of enjoyment and hast abandoned the perfections of kirtan.
Ye wicked
mind, bearest in mind that solitary devotion is propagated in
disguise by the adopters of evil means. Thinkest thou over and
over again what Supreme Lord Gauranga kindly taught us addressing
Sanatana Prabhu with the utmost care. Dost not forget for a moment
the two most valuable words He taught -apparent and real, apathy
and sympathy, freed and enslaved -never confuse the one with the
other. Singest thou the Lord's name aloud.
He is a
Vaishnava who is never a victim to the tigress of wealth, beauty
and fame.He is indeed apathetic and a pure devotee. The transitory
world is to him as a snake is to its charmer.
He is indeed
apathetic who moderately partakes of things necessary for, and
in favour of devotion -neither below nor above par -avoids all
enjoyments and is ever free from diseases. He looks upon every
thing as his Lord as well as Madhava's, and not meant for his
own enjoyment. This identity with, as well as attachment for,
the things of Madhava -is real apathy. Fortunate indeed is he
who is thus attached to Hari and who sees Hari's Lila or splendour
in the realm of matter. He is rich in hypocrisy who sings the
Lord's name to attain eminence.
Forsakers
of matter out of fear or desire and enjoyers thereof are both
equally Non- Vaishnavas. Shun the company of both. Thou canst
neither own nor disown the things of Vishnu and thus run mad after
enjoyment or renunciation.
The mind
of Mayavadins can never think of Krishna and in a mood of imaginary
salvation condemn a Vaishnava. Oh mind! Thou art a servant of
the Vaishnavas and thou shouldst always hope for attaining devotion.
Why shouldst thou hanker after solitude?
A false
renouncer calls himself a forsaker -and can never be a Vaishnava,
as he abandons his servitorship and drowns himself in solitude.
What's the gain in acquiring that seeming good?
Ever engagest
thyself in the service of Shree Radha and keepest aloof from the
snaky enjoyment. Singest the Lord's name not for glory or supremacy.
Why shouldst thou run after false retirement for devotion, leaving
aside the worship of Shree Radha, your eternal Object of worship?
The dwellers
of Braja are the real objects of preaching, and they being living
agents and meant for preaching do not aspire after supremacy and
are strong enough to instil life into the audience. Preaching
is the symptom of vitality. Song of Krishna does not smell of
any attempt for supremacy.
The Humble
servant of Shree Radha and her Lover always hopes for kirtan and
begs of all to sing the name of his Lord aloud. When meditation
will spontaneously follow kirtana, then and then only solitary
devotion and renunciation will be natural.
Two minds - material and spiritual
The mind
can never sit idle. It will either create a hell out of heaven
or a heaven out of hell. It is like drift-wood floating on the
ebb and flow of good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice.
As good Homer sometimes nods, it ever commits wrong in cleaving
to that which seems to be evil and abhorring that which seems
to be good, and vice versa. Every mind has its own way of looking
at things; so what one mind establishes, the other destroys, nay
the same mind rejects today what it accepted yesterday, as every
life is a series of surprises or experiences. The things one now
regards as fixed, shall, one by one, detach themselves, like ripe
fruits, from one's experience and fall. The wind shall blow them,
none knows whither the landscape, the figures, Calcutta, London,
New York, the Royal Throne, the Presidential Chair -are facts
as fugitive as any institution past or any whiff of mist or smoke,
and so is the society and so the world. Intimately alluring and
attractive was a man to you yesterday, a great hope, a sea to
swim in; now you have found his shores, found it a pond and you
care not if you never see it again. The proverb goes, -"Today
king, tomorrow nothing." There are two minds; one, the spiritual
mind or the mind of the soul or jiva, the other, the material
mind which has willing, feeling and perception of the material
world. The spiritual mind can neither attach itself to, nor detach
itself from, the objects of this kingdom of meat and drink nor
is it liable to any change or modification in this world of the
senses. The tongue may stab the material mind and strike into
it a cureless wound, whereas no stab can wound and kill the spiritual
mind. An iron ball and the fire are two distinctly different things;
but when the former is kept in an intimate touch with the latter,
the former plays the role of the latter by radiating heat and
light and burning other things, so the material mind, though in
reality purely a matter and devoid of life and its attendant energy,
having been closely in touch with the spiritual mind from eternity,
exhibits its borrowed activity, like an elephant run amuck, uncontrolled
by the driver, through the ten organs of action and sense in the
shape of good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, philanthropy
and self-enjoyment, benevolence and miserliness etc. There is
no waking, dreaming or sleeping in the spiritual mind, whereas
the physical one wakes, sleeps and dreams; it creates, preserves
and destroys and "gives to airy nothing a local habitation
and a name." In doing so it sometimes busies itself with
the fleeting, frivolous and despicable enjoyments of the world,
sometimes it abstains from these things and chooses at will an
imaginary god as the object of meditation and worshipful adoration,
considers itself a meditator and plunges itself in solitary meditation
or worships an idol of wood, clay or metal as a workable god -as
a means of attaining (1) Salokya (the existence in the plane of
God), (2) Samipya (proximity to God), (3) Sarupya (likeness to
God), (4) Sarsti (equal glory of God), and (5) Sayujya (absorption
in God or annihilation). It thus turns itself an idolater as a
meditator or as an idol-worshipper. Like a dwarf uplifting his
hands to catch at the moon it sometimes tries to taste the succulent
pastimes of the Supreme Lord in His blissful abode with its passionate
senses, identifying the perverted reflection with the real object.
The mind, while giving the bridle to its passions and desires
and being itself fully subject to affliction, grief and distress,
considers itself free from these things and extends its helping
hand to an equally suffering mind. Its knowledge of good and bad,
happiness and misery, donor and the recipient, law and disorder
regarding things other than the Supreme Lord is nothing but a
series of blunders and is like jumping from the frying pan into
the fire or like swimming between Scylla and Charybdis.
Its utterance,
however sweet and sound, its meditation, however deep, long and
undisturbed, though apparently true have no reality and are ever
subject to change and destruction. Sometimes it imitates the activities
of the spiritual mind and picks its own pocket. An abnormal heat
in the body caused by keeping a garlic under the armpit or exposing
the body to the scorching sun and the heat caused by fever, though
similar in perception, are not the same thing -the former is artificial,
empiric and inductive, while the latter is natural, spontaneous
and deductive; the activity of the germ working within, bursts
forth in the shape of feverish heat, headache etc. When the spiritual
mind sets about his dormant devotional activities and his inherent
love of God begins to blossom forth at the touch of the eternal,
superior ecstatic Energy incarnate as his deliverer, tremor (Kampa),
tears (Asru), stupefaction (Stambha), perspiration (Sveda), horripilation
(Pulaka ), pallor (Vaivarnya), humility (Dainya), throbbing, (Bepathu),
exultation (Harsha) etc. appear on the body as spiritual changes
(Satvika vikara).
Sometimes
changes of this nature and appearance are noticed on the bodies
of emotional persons whose minds are so supple and susceptible
as to easily produce those peculiar signs at the clangour of the
drum and the cymbal, sweet music or the like. These are mere effects
of the cause; and the effects disappear as soon as the cause is
withdrawn, as the fever-looking heat disappears from the body
as soon as it is withdrawn from the burning rays or the garlic
is removed from the arm-pit. As the pendulum oscillates between
two extremes, so the mind oscillates between enjoyment and abstinence.
When it gets tired with the meat and drink of this world, the
busy strife of the dinning city, the griefs and woes of sweet
home, the guilty mind seems to awake and exhibits a life of retirement,
non attachment or reclusion, oftentimes vainly directing its energies
to annihilate the imperishable and indestructible devotional energy
of the spiritual mind -to reduce it to nothing so that it can
never feel, will or perceive -it may never come across the fleeting,
changeable, and afflicting things of pleasure and pain. Sometimes
one male mind feels the want of a female mind, and thus a male
body gets united with a female body through the bond of wedlock.
No sooner is this want fulfilled than fresh wants of wealth and
home and hearth arise. When it rolls in wealth and the sweet smile
of wife and children cheers it, alas, the grim reaper whose name
is death, reaps, with his keen sickle the bearded grain and the
flowers that grow between at a breath! Then it realises that it
was drinking poison from a cup of gold. Thus it happens that the
spiritual mind feels that it is fallen in an ocean whose waters
of deep woe are brackish with the salt of human tears, and that
it is within the jaws of lusts and anger like so many sharks and
crocodiles swimming therein, enchained with ardent longings, totally
unfriended and shelterless. He shakes off the torpor and realises
that the material mind had so long been vainly playing with the
fleshy forms known as the wife, the son etc. and fleeting joys
like so many unsteady limpid drops of water on a lotus-leaf.
Had satiation
been in strength Myro and Ophellius would have been happy; had
it been in wealth Croesus would have been happy; neither lies
it in power nor in all these things together, for Nero, Sardanapalus
and Agamemnon sighed and wept and tore their hair and were the
slaves of circumstances and the dupes of appearances. The spiritual
mind realises that he is living like a double-caged bird which
identifies its own living self with the material cages, that the
cages he is living in are ever subject to change and decay and
though they look fresh and alive they are nothing but dust and
will crumble into dust. The subtle cage of the material mind is
within the gross cage of the physical body. The material mind
is dancing like a jackdaw with the borrowed plumes of a peacock.
He reflects -
What relish
can there be in this decaying body, made up of the five decomposable
elements and full of putrescence and impurity? Shall we not mind
for a moment that this perishable and ever-changing body is liable
to wrath, ambition, illusion, fear, grief, envy, hatred -separation
from those we hold most dear and association with those we hate?
What relish can there be for material enjoyments when we are exposed
to hunger, thirst, disease, decrepitude, emaciation, growth, decline
and death. The universe is tending to decay, -grass, trees, animals,
spring up and die. Mighty men are gone leaving their joys and
glories. Beings still greater than these have passed away -vast
oceans have dried -mountains have been thrown down, the polar
star displaced, the cords that bind the planets rent asunder,
the whole earth deluged with flood -in such a world what relish
can there be for fleeting enjoyments? Living in such a world are
we not like frogs jumping in a dried up well?
To get
rid of the deception of this false and treacherous seeming friend,
we should be sincerely suppliant before the Supreme Lord and water
our couch with tears; He will receive our prayers, have mercy
on us and out of His naturally loving kindness, appear before
us as the preceptor, with all the proficiency in the scriptures
and fully free from the hankerings of the senses, to rid us from
the clutch of the wicked mind, which has flame all around and
death within, to cut asunder all its knots and hitches and to
dispel all our darkness of the heart as an elephant runs away
from the darkest recesses of the jungle at the approach of the
lion and the veil of darkness is withdrawn from the surface of
the earth at the advent of Aurora. Then the mind will brood over
its guilty woes like a scorpion girt by fire.
The supplications of the spiritual
mind
One material
mind prays to another material mind (both of whom are being eternally
and equally afflicted by three kinds of miseries) for relief or
help. Its prayers are but hankerings after enjoyment and are always
caused by want, fear and anxiety. There is no material mind -whether
of a king or a tenant, a lord or a servant, a master or a pupil,
the strong or the weak, the rich or the poor, the scholar or the
dunce -which can ever be relieved of want or fear; whereas the
spiritual mind never prays for daily bread, any sort of material
relief, worldly prosperity, a life devoid of all miseries, a life
in heaven dipped in celestial bliss or a peaceful existence in
the kingdom of God. He has no such prayer, but is ever suppliant
before the Supreme Lord and insists on the continuity of his loving
service which is never at an end. As soon as he perceives the
wicked and inimical activities of the material mind, he supplicates
thus before a Vaishnava who has no want, fear or terrors of birth
and death and is powerful enough to deliver all spiritual minds
from the clutch of the material mind:-
Vaishnava
Thakur, the ocean of kindness, I take shelter at thy lotus-feet.
Have mercy on me, your humble servant, and purify me with the
cool shade of your holy feet.
Check my
proneness to pollute myself by (1) using offensive and hurtful
language to others, (2) floating adrift with various frivolous
and despicable passions, (3) using harsh words, (4) coveting palatable
things, (5) giving loose to my appetite, (6) hankering after lasciviousness;
-rid my grovelling self of the six evils of (1) putting by things
in excess, (2) going against devotion by adhering to that which
is forbidden and abhoring that which is favourable, (3) indulging
in useless idle gossips, (4) retarding devotional progress and
accelerating the contrary, (5) keeping company with the non-devotees
and remaining aloof from the devotees, (6) floating with changeable
views and transfuse into me the six virtues of (1) eagerness for
walking in devotional ordinances, (2) firm conviction and sincere
faith, (3) patience and perseverance in devotion, (4) adherence
to the favourable enjoinments and abhorrence for prohibitions
in devotion, (5) forsaking the company of the effeminate tied
to a woman's apron-strings and the impious, (6) following the
footsteps of the righteous men. I have been waiting for your company,
bereft of which I am totally powerless to sing the name of the
Supreme Lord (Krishna); so be kind enough to instil in me reverence
and enrich me with the wealth of the Lord's (Krishna's) name as
Krishna is yours and you can give Him to me -a beggar, bereft
of all worldly wealth and following you chanting 'Krishna', 'Krishna'.
Vaishnavas
are the wealth of this world. They who serve the Supreme Lord
under his (Vaishnava's) guidance, walk in the commandments of
the Lord and follow His observances, the rest live and die in
vain. The best ornament of our head should be the dust of their
feet, the best food, the remnants of their dish and the best drink,
the water that washes their holy feet -these and only these can
renew devotional love in us. Who but a Vaishnava will save our
blinded selves from being led by a blind and from the onsets of
ever-increasing insatiable lusts, anger, covetousness, illusion
and egotism? We are groping in the dark labyrinth of this world
and know not whither lies our way.
The advent of Shree Chaitanya
Deva
It was
in the year 1486 A.D. that Shree Chaitanya Deva appeared before
us at Mayapur in Antardwip [the island at the core or centre of
the nine (nava) islands (dwipa) of which Navadwip consists] on
the eastern bank of the holy Ganges and lived there for the first
twenty-four years of His stay here playing the part of house-holder.
He accepted as his father, Jagannatha Misra, a respectable Brahmin
Pandita of Sylhet, then settled at Navadwip, and Sachi Devi, an
ideal Brahmin lady of the time as His mother. He had a human form
so perfectly built, so lustrously complexioned, so highly statured
and so lovely as purely inconceivable in a human body, and possessed
such a pleasing and overpowering intelligence before whose effulgence
the brightest and sharpest human intelligences burned like glowworms.
With all these superhuman gifts and possessions, He led the life
of an ideal Vaishnava and with a view to establish an exemplar
life of a pure and sincere devotee, extremely painful at the separation
of His Divine Lover, complaisant and compliant to please Him by
doing the highest good to Himself and to others by Himself adopting
the life of an ideal devotee and by making others adopt a similar
life. As propagation and practice or precept and example do rarely
go hand in hand, He himself practised what He preached. He showed
practically that devotion lies in all souls and not in the accompanying
minds and bodies and that neither the delible stamp of birth,
worldly knowledge and riches do in any way stand in the way of
devotion nor do low birth, ignorance and poverty help or endanger
devotion. The soul obliterates his individuality before the world
and disclaims these designations. He knows that he is lowlier
than the grass, more forbearant than a tree, himself honourless
and honours other souls and that he sings the praise and glory
of Hari day and night whether the material mind sleeps or wakes,
the physical body busies itself or is at rest and even when he
gives up for ever these two coils of the body and the mind. When
the soul - not the material mind, surrenders himself to a Vaishnava
and chants the name of 'Krishna' under his guidance and following
his devotional enjoinments, (1) the activities of the material
mind eternally prevailing over and enshrouding the soul or the
spiritual mind gradually diminish, (2) the forest-fire caused
by the friction of material minds is put out not to burn any more,
(3) the efflorescent beams of Divine Bliss open the buds of spiritual
weal, (4) transcendental wisdom bursts forth the shell of worldly
knowledge, (5) the ocean of bliss swells up, (6) the soul tastes
at every sip the succus of Divine Love, (7) wherein all souls
are immersed casting off the impurities of the material mind.
Along with
the soul's casting off the torpor of the illusory gloom reigning
over him from eternity, the prayer of the material mind for worldly
wealth, for dear ones, and for a proficiency in worldly knowledge
diminishes and he longs for eternal devotion unborn of motive
or desire in whatever situation his Lord pleases to place him.
Chaitanya Deva as a Gardener
This distinctive
inherent activity of the soul, which is called devotion and wafts
the spiritual mind above all sordid thoughts, was not only propagated
by Shree Chaitanya Deva but He Himself was an embodiment of it
and proclaimed that He was a gardener possessing and nurturing
the immortal and ever-fruitful tree of Divine Love, the innumerable
and succulent fruits whereof are hanging like figs on a fig-tree
and that His business was to distribute these fruits to the rich
and the poor, the high and the low alike without any price and
consideration and thus to play the part of a most munificent giver.
He renounced the world and took up the task of distributing Divine
Love to all jivas who were groping after the Spiritual by describing
Him as invisible or were oblivious of their own true selves as
well as of the real nature of their most Pleasing and Loving Attractor.
This forgetfulness on the part of jivas is the root of all evils
and sufferings; so He entreated one and all to taste of this divine
fruit and contribute their share in distributing the fruit of
Divine Love and enjoined that the best use of their lives lay
in doing the highest and eternal good to themselves and to others
and in practising at all times spiritual weal to others with their
life, wealth, intelligence and speech. He said, "In so doing
the waves of the world will not stand in your way as your steps
are ordered by the Divine Lover and He delights in your way. There
may be a seeming fall but fear not nor be utterly cast down as
He holds you up with His hand. If you are dumb, you will be a
persuasive talker, if your legs are crippled, you will cross the
Alps with ease and your words will need no bell to call people
together and no constable to keep them -these will draw the children
from their play, the old from their armchairs, the invalid from
their warm chamber. Those who feel that their hardened necks are
within the guillotine of birth and death will flow in torrents
like patients to efficient doctors and will be effectually cured
having received your efficacious remedy which is ever effective
in its working. Your eye is on the eternal, consequently your
intellect will grow and your opinions and actions will have such
a beauty and strength which no learning or combined advantages
of other men can rival. Know that Divine Assessors come up with
us into life -now under one disguise, now under another like a
police-man in a citizen's clothes -walk with us step for step
through this world of senses to carry us to our ever-blissful
abode."
Application of real kindness
to jivas
Shree Nityananda
Prabhu, Advaita-acharya Prabhu, Shree Rupa and Sanatana Goswamins
and Thakur Haridasa -the dear and ever-associated generals of
Shree Chaitanya Deva were deputed in rendering practical kindness
to the ever-suffering humanity by:
(1) Spending
their whole time and energy in devotional activities,
(2) Chanting
aloud the Lord's name day and night,
(3) Singing
His praise and glory,
(4) Compiling
volumes of devotional works,
(5) Reclaiming
and restoring the sacred sites,
(6) Going
from door to door and begging of the sleepers and dreamers thereof
to arise, awake and worship'Krishna, talk about Krishna, take
His name and know that He is their father, mother, wealth and
life; that they have no other objects of worship save and except
'Krishna'. As the twigs, leaves, flowers, fruits and the branches
of the tree -their rest -are actually fed by feeding the roots
and as the limbs of the body are properly nourished by putting
the food into the stomach, so the innumerable gods, sages, forefathers,
kings, animals are fully and properly appeased if Krishna, wherein
lie all of them together, is worshipped. As continual showers
of rain cannot feed the leaves nor enliven them, unless and until
the rainwater is taken up by the roots and as the limbs are unable
to get any nourishment from the food unless it is put into the
stomach, so none can accept any present or exact adoration directly
from men, unless all presents are made over to Krishna and He
is worshipped.
All souls
or jivas in their true selves are related to Krishna, the Over-soul,
either as (1) His mute servants, -the flute, the rod etc., (2)
His servitors, His gardeners, His sweepers etc., (3) His friends,
playmates, (4) His parents Nanda-Yashoda, (5) His consorts -Shree
Radha and her attendants. This relation being eternally fixed
is neither inter-changeable nor transferable. Krishna, the Prime
Cause, the Lord of all lords, the Supreme of all Gods, is embued
fully with the six divine pre-essences -(1) Wealth, (2) Might,
(3) Glory, (4) Splendour, (5) Wisdom, (6) Dispassion -dilute in
His over-flowing love and all-charming beauty. He is the only
Lover and the only object of love. This love, fully free from
all earthly dross of lusts and passion, makes the Lover serve
His beloved ones and the beloved ones their Lover -this love drowns
all conceptions of Divine Sovereignty and possession of the above
six pre-essences. The eyes of the beloved are always blind to
notice the sovereignty or adorability of the object of love. The
beloved ones, spontaneously deem themselves either equal or superior
to the object of love, in consequence the former playfully ascends
the shoulder of, chastises or takes to task or brings up with
affectionate care, the latter. The love of Krishna is thus characterised.
Krishna's loving beauty is so enamouring that even the god of
lusts is charmed by Him and Krishna Himself being charmed by His
own beauty and loveliness covets the pleasure enjoyed by the best
of His lovers Shree Radha, by lovingly serving such Form as His.
So anointing Himself with the lustre and complexion of Shree Radha
and having been imbued with Her ardent longings of love, Krishna
is ever dallying as an exemplary lover of Himself as Shree Gauranga.
Shree Krishna, the essential nature of the Supreme Being -the
only Real and Eternal Truth is the only object of love and Shree
Gauranga the possessor and distribitor of that love Krishna is
simultaneously dallying with His dear consort in the groves of
Vrindavana and tasting the extract of love-succus flowing from
His consort as Gauranga at Nabadwip, Himself singing Krishna's
name and teaching others how to Iove Krishna and sing His name.
In so doing He distinguishes pointedly the real name, identical
with the Object Himself, from the apparent or false one which
is taken profanely, blasphemously or in vain. He emphasises that
in this Kali-yuga (era) worldly people indulge in (1) duplicity,
(2) intoxication, (3) sensuality, (4) killing of animals, (5)
mercenariness and so are unable to meditate upon, or worship Vishnu
and to perform Vedic sacrifices. So the chanting of Krishna's
name is the only meditation, the only sacrifice, the only worship
in this Kali-age -Name is the means, Name is the end. But is should
be noted with the utmost care that Krishna's name is not mere
combination or utterance of letters. A similarity in utterance
and appearance is not identity. The fire and the glow-worm though
similar in appearance are not identical. The minutest spark of
fire set consciously or unconsciously, seriously or playfully
will instantaneously burn an inflammable thing, whereas thousand
glowworms will not act in thousand years. Krishna's name is identical
with Krishna Himself and pregnant with all the properties and
attributes of Krishna. So His name, unlike all other names, is
full of energy, perfect, eternal, pure, devoid of illusion and
eternally free. Aurora is sufficient to dispel the darkness of
night and to drive the wild animals to their lairs and thieves
and dacoits to their resorts, enables us to distinguish the various
objects of senses and ushers the advent of the glowing lamp of
heaven. So does Namabhasa (the utterance of name avoiding the
ten profanations) stop poverty from planting our pillows with
thorns, destroy our worldly hankerings and dispel the illusory
gloom, so that we may see the Name face to face. When the everburning
lamp peeps out of the eastern horizon, its ever-effulgent rays
make us see it face to face and feel its golden rays and enable
us to see all objects bathing therein. The sun is seen and felt
by us with its own rays and heat and not with the help of any
other glowing object. The brightest candles of the universe put
together can not make the sun visible to us. When our dreamy nights
are at an end -when we shake off the torpor, open our eyes, turn
them to the east, we see the Name-sun with all his glory and beauty.
*Tritap -The three afflictions are three kinds
of miseries known as the "Adhyatmika" i.e., those that
are due to one's self; the "Adhidaivika" those that
arise out of deities or are of supernatural origin, and the "Adhibhautika"
those that arise out of natural causes and beings. For example,
fever and other such diseases, anger, desire and other such passions
form the misery known as the "Adhyatmika". Thunder,
lightning etc., produce the "Adhidaivika" misery. The
"Adhibhautika" misery results from other animals such
as tigers, snakes etc.
**As an instrument, a servant, a friend, parents
and a consort.
